The Institutions of the German Retail Sector - A Historical and Comparative Insitutionalist Analysis of a German Non-core Industry

对不同形式的资本主义(霍尔和索斯基斯、惠特利、施特雷克、塞伦等人)进行的大多数历史和更具功能性的比较分析都假设，德国的经济制度在各个行业都是同质的。他们批评称，按照德国模式的这些概念，制造业的机构被假定为代表整个体系，尽管它们实际上只构成经济的一个部分；非核心行业的制度轨迹可能遵循与核心行业截然不同且独立的逻辑。该项目专注于一个与工业化并行出现的大型非核心行业，并深深植根于中小型企业独立店主的传统。主要目标是：(1)实证研究的核心目标是对塑造德国零售业的机构的发展及其背后的政治斗争进行详细的(厚的)因果解释重建，重点关注产业政策和地区规划、公司治理、供应商关系、职业培训、劳资关系和福利国家等领域。(2)与英国、法国和意大利的零售业机构进行国际比较主要是为了启发实证分析和检查德国案例的因果解释。(3)该项目询问制度领域之间的关系，最重要的是从历史的角度来看：小型零售商在所有领域的成功利益代表和占主导地位的Mittelstand核心话语(Lehmbruch)在多大程度上具有一致性和可能的同质性？(4)与德国核心部门的机构(即德国模式)的比较有助于敏锐地看待零售部门的特殊性。还将提出关于这两个部门的机构之间的独立性或相互依存以及它们的历史发展的问题。该研究项目将有助于理解零售业作为德国最大的经济部门之一。它将首次探讨对典型的非核心部门采取历史和比较体制主义方法的可行性和有用性。最后，它将有助于制度主义者关于对德国整体经济制度进行更加差异化的概念化的辩论，因为它引入了这样一个概念，即非核心部门机构不仅是核心部门机构的修改，即德国模式，而且这些机构沿着自己的特定轨迹发展，需要进行分析--特别是在非核心行业的重要性日益增长，其机构和做法也越来越影响核心部门的情况下。

Most historical as well as more functional comparative analyses of different forms of capitalism (Hall and Soskice, Whitley, Streeck, Thelen and others) assume that German economic institutions are homogenous across industries The project follows Lehndorff et al. who have criticised that by these concepts of a German Model the institutions in the manufacturing sector are assumed to represent the whole of the system, although they actually constitute only one segment of the economy; the institutional trajectories of non-core industries might follow a logic quite different and independent from that of the core sectors. The project focuses on a big non-core industry that has emerged parallel to industrialisation and is deeply rooted in the Mittelstand tradition of independent shopkeepers. The main objectives are: (1) The core objective of the empirical research is a detailed (thick) causal explanatory reconstruction of the development of the institutions that have shaped the German retail sector and the political struggles behind them, focusing on the domains of industrial policy and regional planning, corporate governance, supplier relationships, vocational training, industrial relations and the welfare state.(2) An international comparison with the retail sector institutions of the UK, France and Italy will primarily serve the purpose of inspiring the empirical analysis and checking the causal explanations of the German case.(3) The project asks about the relationship between the institutional domains, foremost from the historical perspective: to what degree is there coherence and possibly homogeneity stemming from successful interest representation of small retailers in all domains and a dominant Mittelstand core discourse (Lehmbruch)?(4) A comparison with the institutions of the German core sectors (i.e. the German Model) serves to sharpen the view for specificities of the retail sector. Questions about the independence or interdependence between the institutions of the two sectors and their historical development will also be raised.The research project will contribute to the understanding of the retail industry as one of the biggest German economic sectors. It will for the first time explore the viability and usefulness of a historical and comparative institutionalist approach to a typical non-core sector. Finally, it will make a contribution to institutionalist debates about a more differentiated conceptualisation of overall German economic institutions, by introducing a concept where non-core sector institutions are not just modifications of those of the core sectors, i.e. of the German Model, and where these institutions have developed along their own specific trajectories, that need to be analysed - especially in a time when the importance of non-core industries is growing and their institutions and practices are increasingly also affecting those of the core sectors.